Currently, the number of data networks and the volume of traffic these networks carry are increasing at an ever increasing rate. The network devices making up these networks generally consist of specialized hardware designed to move data at very high speeds. Typical asynchronous packet based networks, such as Ethernet or MPLS based networks, are mainly comprised of end stations, hubs, switches, routers, bridges and gateways. A network management system (NMS) is typically employed to provision, administer and maintain the network.
Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) based networks are becoming increasingly popular especially in traffic engineering IP networks. MPLS uses a label switching model to switch data over a Label Switched Path (LSP). The route of an LSP is determined by the network layer routing function or by a centralized entity (e.g., a Network Management System) from the topology of the network, the status of its resources and the demands of the user. Any suitable link state routing protocol may be used such as Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) or Intermediate System to Intermediate System (ISIS) routing protocol to provide the link state topology information needed by the network layer routing to engineer data traffic. It is also possible to use a local neighbor-discovery protocol and have a centralized management entity maintain the topology view. LSPs may be setup using any suitable signaling protocol such as RSVP-TE or CR-LDP or using the management plane (e.g., NMS setting the relevant MIB items that create the LSPs).
There is an ever-increasing demand by users for more and more bandwidth. In an attempt to meet this demand, carriers and network operators are installing larger capacity links capable of handling large and larger amounts of traffic. A problem arises, however, when the aggregate link speeds exceed the capacity of the internal circuits used to process the inbound and outbound packet streams. For example, consider a 10 GE input packet stream. Single-chip network processors fast enough to process the input packet stream may not be available and/or are cost prohibitive to use. One solution, therefore, is to split the input packet stream into smaller bandwidth links that can be processed by existing processors. A simple and efficient forwarding and provisioning mechanism is needed, however, to implement the splitting. In addition, the increasing use of MPLS requires that any solution be able to handle the MPLS protocol as well.
There is thus a need for a forwarding and provisioning mechanism that enables a high speed packet stream to be processed by multiple processors that operate at a slower rate that the inbound packet stream. The mechanism should be scaleable, flexible and not degrade the provisioning capacity of CIR traffic.